Notes to Myself

  I remember getting my first yearbook. It was new, shiny, and mine. It was incredibly ridiculous, radial tie dye with our uniform viking centered on the cover. I loved it.
  Sixth grade had been a crazy, unusual year for me; the new middle school experience and routine, Getting my first F's in math, and transfering to and from a charter school within a couple of weeks. I was not in elementary school anymore. It was the year that I felt good about myself, when I made code names with my bestfriends and learned about the tropical rainforest layers. All in all, an amazing experience.
  I had made so many friends, and I wanted every single one to sign that yearbook. When the last day was over, all the signings were done, I saw that one page was blank. I decided that day that I, my 6th grade self, would sign my yearbook. I told my future self about the great ventures I had endured and what I expected myself to improve on next year. I have written to myself every year since. Every year that is, until last year. My first year of High School.

  I hadn't even realized that I had not signed my own Freshman yearbook until I got my Sophomore yearbook. I  had realized this was the first year that my uniform viking was not centered on the cover. My strong Royal Blue and Golden Yellow Viking, my favorite mascot. A maverick had stolen his place. My yearbook was at least an inch thick, and in those pages I only knew about 10% of my fellow students. I had no one to sign it, and I didn't want anyone to. In the index, I found that I was only on two pages, tennis and the sophomore student listings. For the first time in my whole education experience I was so disappointed in myself. And I hated my yearbook.
  I keep all my yearbooks on my top shelf, its very dusty with memories. I got my freshman book down, flipped to the blank page I always keep to sign, and found it blank. I had forgotten to sign it, in all the commotion of moving and saying goodbye to my friends I had forgotten to write to myself. How could I do that? The one thing I needed most was to hear from my past self, and I had let myself down.

  I am never going to let myself down again. I wrote to myself in my Maverick yearbook, about this year, about how disappointed and proud I was of myself, and what I expected I do better next year. I wasted a year, an entire year living in the past. Wanting to go back, to represent the Viking I am. I wanted my friends and I wanted to be happy, and I made myself  miserable wanting something I used to have. I could have had friends, and I could have been happy, as a maverick.  It is heartbreakingly sad that it took me an entire school year to figure this out, but I believe some life lessons take longer than others, hurt more than others, and teach more than other life lessons. And that's okay. I'm okay.
  I have signatures in my yearbook, I have so many friends, I am very happy now, and I am so excited to be a Maverick next year =)

I am ready to take Junior year by the horns, pun intended!

The Tennis Team

  I cannot express how much I love my team,  they just make my entire day. I would definitely say that this season of tennis has been the highlight of my Sophomore year, getting to be myself and laugh and have fun is just a really great privilege to be able to experience. My teammates are probably the best friends I've ever had, especially in this past year. So here are some photos of our practices and games we've had this season :)

 This is Will with his game face on

 Frank The Tank with a sick backhand

 Remie kick-starting a volley

 Mitch practicing doubles

 Taryn actually started this year!! She is already becoming a great player!

 One of two of our hipster players, and i would like to say i am in love with his hairstyle! If i was a boy..... =P

Ethan caught mid-swing on his killer serve

 This is our courts! But they need to be resurfaced really bad...

 Coach Sifa ,telling us how its done

Remie and Matt chilling out before their match 

 Katelyn looken determined in her game as she plays net

Ben! Like one of my best friends on the team!

 Will serving like a champ!

 Me! and my serve!

This is just a few members of the team! I love hanging out with each and every one of them =)

Freak Alley

 So Downtown Boise is the most amazing place to hangout in Idaho, like seriously, it is so mainstream! There is literally a coffee place at the end of every street, my favorite one being The Hammer :P . I have only gone there three times, twice for digital photography and the other for choir. The second time I went there was on a fieldtrip in which our assignment was to take  pictures of certain things, like a scavenger hunt! It was fun running around independently with my friends, but the best part about that trip was finding Freak Alley.

   It is a really cool place, it is an alley way where artist go and paint murals. I love it there, I like all the statements the artist express in their art and I just love all the colors! Some are sad, some are happy, some address touchy subjects such as the honesty and integrity of political leaders, and some are just so fun! Every year, new artist get asked to bring in their creative touches. I think its sad that eventually they will be painted over by others art, but at the same time it is really cool that it is always changing. Its like a mosh pot of emotion.

  Recently, I took my sisters and my dad there so that I could do an assignment for photography; portraits! We had a hard time parking at first cause we had literally NO CHANGE in the car to put into the meter so I was really worried we wouldn't get to even go! Luckily, I found a penny. So we only had 20 minutes to walk there, take our pictures, and leave. Sooo not enough time, but sometimes you need to make good with what you got. It was a really fun experience and I am glad we all had a lot of fun. I am also glad I got a lot of fantastic pictures for my class! phew!

  Here are some of the shots I took, my mom liked them so much that we are going to frame them and hang them up :) I particularly like the butterfly wings images because I thought it was such an innovative idea, I used proportion to make it look like the wings were really coming from my sisters and I ! I hope you enjoy them! 

I will be trying to post more often btw, so expect more coming up! ;)

More Photography!

    I took more photos!

   For awhile, I was upset with my camera because it was new and it didn't want to work with me ( probably due to operator error :P ). It was like no matter what setting I used or what F-Stop I adjusted it too, it would not achieve the effect I wanted! I missed my old camera ='( but then the other day, I was like Okay, go outside and take pictures! Maybe it'll work today! And I messed around with it, and finally found the right command! Yes! Now I have amazing jasmine-approved images :) Here are a few of them that I recently took------>

I took my Hot Cocoa outside, and set it in the snow. I just love the way this photo looks &  how it feels to me ; warm and cold all together!

Favorite sport in the world: Tennis! Snow is a very good background and I tried to use it to my advantage

An in class photo shoot of still life objects. I got to control all of it; the backdrop, the objects, light placement, everything! I just really like this composition.

Another in class photo shoot image

My still life assignment, consisting of two apples and the railing of our playhouse :)

This is my favorite image I took, and adding the Photoshop techniques I learned  makes it that much better.

another tennis image

wilson logo :)

Hope you like them!!

My 2013 Favorites

  A lot has transpired this 2013; Some good, some heart melting-ly great, and some just down right terrible(at least in my opinion). I cant believe that in January of last year, I was in Middleton with my best friend, getting ready for tennis season, and now, we are apart. But still very excited for tennis! I will say that this year has really affected my characteristics and dreams. I think I'm a bit more wiser. More aware about the world. I guess that's what comes along with growing older. (:

So here is a list and some photographs taken throughout 2013 that  have been my favorite things in 2013!


My Favorite 2013...

Best Friend

DIY Project

Event

Quote

Place

School Day

Self Image

Sports Photograph

                               Song

Summer Moment

Last Pic of 2013

happy 2014 everyone!

First Snow of the Year!

  Recently it snowed! Last Friday night my sisters and I were on our way back from a party at Big Als (a bowling , arcade, and restaurant venue) when we noticed snowflakes swirling and blowing from the sky! It was so cool! The next morning I looked outside, and oh my gosh, a blanket of snow had enveloped our whole neighborhood! It was really quite amazing.

   Although I immediately wanted to go jump in it, I had to clean our house and finish decorating for Christmas because we were going to have a party at our house that night, but soon after I was finished we bundled ourselves up and ran outside! I had to document our first snow at our new house :)  It was very fun. We played in the snow and Daisy, in her adorable hot pink jacket, just ran around everywhere. Sierra made a new snow game called "Snow Zombies". It is kind of weird, but a very fun game. Good Job Sierra!

Here's some photographs I took of the first snow :)

 12 more days of Christmas! pretty excited!

My Super Fantastic Photos

This semester I am enrolled in Photo 1, and I have had just a fantastic time learning the techniques and principles of photography. Taking pictures has always been a interesting passion of mine, I just absolutely love capturing memories!! When I was young, I wanted to be a professional photographer; climbing the frigid arctic glaciers and capturing the perfect composition of the ice (did I mention I don't like heights and take every opportunity to not be in cold conditions), but since then I have found other interests. It is still a passion I have, but one I'm planning on pursuing as a hobby, not a career. Nonetheless, I think photography is such a great art and is in every aspect of our society today. Think about it! We use images for everything, to educate, to entertain, to impact! Its really a wonderful thing that many of us today take for granted.

So here's some images I took. =) hope you enjoy them!

 I took this in La Grande, Oregon. I didn't even realize what a good composition it was until I transferred it onto my computer!

This was taken at my school, as an assignment my teacher had the the whole class take pictures in the parking lot. I really like the glare of the morning sun.

These were both taken on a rainy day in my front yard, i got all wet but it was worth it!!